


All The Outs In Free.

by CescaLR



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Horror, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, WIP
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-01-10 05:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12291834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CescaLR/pseuds/CescaLR
Summary: A new day dawns. Alex knows the loop is broken. But, really... that could never have been the end.~~~~~~If Alex had known leaving the island would be the easiest part of the whole thing... Well, she'd probably have preferred to pretend to lose the radio - or actually lose the radio - and loop the first few hours, over and over.... Because truthfully, Alex can't deal with the fact that it's over but not done.~~~Or, Alex ending the Edwards Island loop - two other Alex-es, two other timelines, one wholly separate from all of this and another doomed to looping, forever and always, trapped as a constant so every other Alex, every other version of their friends can be free  - doesn't stop the Sunken from haunting them. Also, going through the loops so many times, messing with Time as much as she has done... It makes perfect, horrible sense that Alex? She's got *something* odd from all of that.





	1. The Light Of Day.

**Author's Note:**

> The 'good' ending; Ren and Nona together, Michael alive and with Clarissa, Alex made up with Clarissa, Alex bonded with her new friend Jonas, everyone's alive, etc. 
> 
> The night on the island is, however, different from every other time she's gotten this ending. The following chapters will be that night... though Alex still remembers it the same as if Jonas had been her step-sibling and Michael was dead.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex wakes up.
> 
> This is not the first time. She hopes it will be the last.

Alex could hear voices. 

Her friends' voices, she realized - Ren's, Jonas'... 

_Michael's._

No matter how many times she went through this, hearing Michael alive,  _seeing_ him right there, being able to hug him and talk to him... it took her breath away. Her brother, previously dead - and now not. 

Nobody ever remembered, though. She'd never know what the night on the island was like for everyone else, and they'd never know what it had been like for her. Still... as prices for things like the resurrection of dead family members go, Alex thinks that this is a pretty cheap one. 

"She's awake." Alex hears, as she sits up and blinks the blackness from her vision. 

Clarissa. This time around Alex had managed to make up with the redhead. It was always - nice. When she did that. Clarissa, Alex, and Nona went out dress shopping for prom, and it was more enjoyable than the times Alex had had to do that alone or hadn't done it at all. 

"Whatever you did down in that cave, it worked," Michael said, and _wait_ - 

"I did?" Alex asked, frowning. She could have sworn - 

"Yeah," Jonas nodded. This... was different. 

In Alex's experience, different didn't always mean better. But she could have  _sworn_ that every single previous time she'd gotten this ending to the night, Michael had been with her. In the cave. At least, according to the others. 

"I mean, we were planning to go down together," Michael says, and that's... closer to how this usually goes. "But..." Michael looks over at Jonas, for a moment. "According to Jonas here, we all... stopped existing? I don't remember much about that last hour or so... just waking up on this very ferry." 

"Okay," Alex says slowly. "So..."

"It ended up being that you and Jonas here went down together." Ren finished for her, nodding. "Which, by the way, was a strangely consistent - happening, during the whole night. You and Jonas having to go and accomplish the things we needed to do in order to be rid of the ghosts, that is, because Michael was out of - commission, or something." 

Alex frowned and nodded slowly. "Yeah," She allowed, "I - I remember that." Likely not in the way they remember it, but it was just best to go along with whatever the world had chosen the night to have been like for everyone else. 

It... made things a little lonely, sure. But it stopped anyone from looking at her funny that shouldn't because they experienced the same shit she went through, if not in the same way or the same intensity. 

None of them ever really remembered the loops, after all. The closest anyone got was Jonas' vague ideas of 'having done this before, this whole night' and that... it gave her a twisted kind of hope that  _someone,_ at  _some point,_ would break through whatever memory barrier there was and just...  _know,_ like Alex does, every single loop that they've been through. Since they broke through the barrier, at any rate. 

It was a twisted kind of hope, because no matter what happened or how it happened or anything she did, only Jonas ever vaguely remembered. 

"Right well - good," Nona said, smiling. "Since we survived all your invitations to my birthday party stand, by the way." 

"We’ll definitely be there. Right guys? Oh! and - Jonas, buddy - before I forget, my heartfelt apologies to you; this is *not* what I meant when I said this would be a good time." Ren winced. "Sorry about that. I mean, we invited the poor guy, and I helped convince him to come along, he's just moved here with his dad and..." 

"Yeah, we know." Clarissa rolled her eyes. "It's been a horrible night, Jonas here stopped you from trying to fly off the cliff after you ate that second brownie, or whatever." "Ah..." Ren winced. "You're all, uh, never going to let that go, are you?" 

"Nope." Alex found herself saying. "Like, sure, whatever, if you hadn't 'mismeasured the magic', but  _ you said _ that you  _ did, _ so *why on _ earth* _ -" 

"Alright, kiddos, settle down." Michael interrupted. "It's been a rough night - but hey, we survived, thanks to Alex, Jonas and myself." "Oh please, you were just as possessed as I was for an annoyingly large portion of last night," Clarissa said, as she sat down next to Michael. 

"Alright, alright." Michael smiled easily, unoffended. "Thanks to Alex and Jonas, then."

"Wait - he was?" Alex asked - surprise stopping her from holding back her words. That was new; it had always been Alex and Michael on the nights when he was resurrected. Clarissa blinked over at Alex. "Well, yeah." She said, in a 'duh, obviously' sort of tone. "That's why Jonas tagged along with you instead of Michael. From what I remember, anyway."

"... Right." Alex responded, uneasy. "Yeah, of course." 

Michael raised an eyebrow at her but let the matter drop. For that at least temporary allowance, Alex was grateful. 

"I can't believe everything that happened. I just..." Nona trailed off, for a moment. "I feel like we should tell everyone we know. Like, go on a-"

"As much as I'd love to get put away for being insane, I think that's a terrible idea," Jonas interrupted, drily. "No offense, but who'd take us seriously?" 

Alex blinked. Most of the time, that - or, well, something similar - was  _ her _ line. Alex mentally scolded herself for feeling a little miffed at that; Jonas hadn't  _ stolen _ anything. He'd just said something before she'd had the chance to say it... if that was even going to be her response this time around. 

"I mean... he's not wrong," Alex said. "Who'd believe that 'ghosts haunted us and also time travel happened?' Realistically speaking?" 

Nona sighed. "I guess you're right," She nodded. "Well, at least we'll always know."

"Yeah," Clarissa said drily. "Because that's such a good thing."

"Hey now," Michael put in. "We've all grown closer as a result, right? We'll be friends for a long time, I'd wager. That's one good thing that came out of all this."

Ren nodded, and there was a wave of agreeing murmurings. 

"Hey, wait - Ren, isn't that the book you were reading?" Nona had spotted something under one of the benches - a book - and the following conversations passed exactly as they did in every other loop. 

Except...

"Wait - didn't you?-"

Alex didn't say that. 

_ Jonas did.  _

The flash flared bright in Alex's eyes, and confusion rang clear in her head. 

_ Jonas remembered? _

What the hell. Now that -  _that_ was new. 

Alex - for once - liked new. 

* * *

 


	2. The Repeat Of A Different Same.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jonas catches sight of two people on the swings, and he frowns in confusion momentarily. 
> 
> He could have sworn-
> 
> But no. Jonas has never met these people in his life. Still, Jonas finds himself looking them over, seeing if they'd be the type of people he could approach without any issues. 
> 
> The girl has teal hair, out of all colours to dye it, and it looks - nice, he figures. She's got a darker skin tone and a red jacket, too, Jonas can see plainly. The jacket doesn't fit her, exactly, so maybe it isn't hers but if that is the case, it's definitely not the other teen's - a guy, kind of weedy, with (small) ear gauges and dyed blonde hair; if his brown eyebrows are anything to go by.
> 
> Jonas glances around the park and shifts on the spot; admittedly a little out-of-place, and thinks on whether or not he should approach them. 
> 
> (There's something - familiar. Jonas is curious, sue him.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fixed the summary. Nothing else to see here in this update.

Jonas' day had been normal enough, for a day that involves packing up all of your belongings and traveling to another town. In order to stay in said town, permanently. 

When Jonas and his dad got to the house, having followed behind the moving van, they stood outside for a moment and stared up at it. 

 _At least there's no bars on the windows,_ Jonas thinks, and he goes in; opens the door with the spare key his dad gave him and returns outside to grab a box from the trunk - since the van was packed full of furniture and living where they lived means neither of them really trust their valuables with a random set of other people who just so happen to own a van and run a company - then goes back inside. His dad follows soon after. 

Jonas takes the box he's carrying upstairs and drops it on the floor of his room with a loud thud. He grabs the swiss knife (more a single object that can perform many functions than a simple 'knife', but sure, that's it's name, whatever) from his pocket and slices open the tape keeping the cardboard box sealed shut, then returns the knife to it's hiding place and starts unpacking. 

About fifteen minutes later, give or take, Jonas is done storing everything away in the pre-built shelves, on the desk, and in the desk, away inside the wardrobe - and goes back downstairs. 

"Son, we're going to be moving around furniture for the rest of the day - how about you go get yourself acquainted with the town?" His dad offered, and Jonas is fine with either prospect, but whatever. 

Jonas nods in agreement, says "See you later then, dad," And is gone out the door before the man can respond in kind. 

* * *

It's a small enough town without being too small, Jonas finds as he wanders the streets. There aren't many places to go, as much as there were in North Valley, but they're of a higher quality and as far as Jonas is aware, a lower danger rating (in the sense that you're much less likely to get mugged or stabbed or something along those lines). 

Drugs, though. Marijuana must be legal, here, Jonas notes, even if they're not exactly looked on favorably - he's seen people 'hiding' behind trees and at the entrances of back roads doing the stuff, and Jonas steers clear because he doesn't really want to meet anyone just yet. 

Especially not someone who might not even remember meeting him. 

Jonas, after a bit more wandering, finds himself in a playground that is obviously not used by kids past three pm - there are cigarette butts on the edges of bins and the ground, and he's spied another couple potheads sitting on the back benches. 

Jonas catches sight of two people on the swings, and he frowns in confusion momentarily. 

_He could have sworn-_

But no. Jonas has never met these people in his life. Still, Jonas finds himself looking them over, seeing if they'd be the type of people he could approach without any issues. 

The girl has teal hair, out of all colours to dye it, and it looks - nice, he figures. She's got a darker skin tone and a red jacket, too, Jonas can see plainly. The jacket doesn't fit her, exactly, so maybe it isn't hers but if that is the case, it's definitely not the other teen's - a guy, kind of weedy, with (small) ear gauges and dyed blonde hair; if his brown eyebrows are anything to go by.

Jonas glances around the park and shifts on the spot; admittedly a little out-of-place, and thinks on whether or not he should approach them. 

( _There's something - familiar. Jonas is curious, sue him.)_

He doesn't have to, though. 

"Hey!" The girl calls out, "You lost, buddy?" Her friend asks - interrupts, really - and Jonas shrugs, walks over as he shakes his head in the negative. "No," He says. "Just -"

"Oh, wait, you're the new guy!" The male teen exclaims, interrupts (again) and Jonas - shrugs. 

It's fitting, he knows. Because he  _is_ the new guy. He literally just moved into town; in a place like this, that's hardly an unnoticeable event. 

"Yeah," Jonas says, stands slightly off to the side of the swingset; leans against one of the supports. "That would be me."

"Cool." The girl says, smiles. "I'm Alex. This is Ren, who has an unfortunate habit of talking over people." The other teen protests and Jonas nods back to this 'Alex'. 

"Jonas." He offers to the other two, and Alex nods - frowns, minutely, but shakes it off - and swings slightly; back and forth, back and forth, a seemingly endless loop. 

"Well it's nice to meet you, Jonas," 'Ren' says, pointedly. Probably still affronted, unless it's a mock-kind of affront. Jonas doesn't know him well enough to judge, yet. 

Alex blinks up at Jonas, her ponytail swaying as she swings minutely. "Hey, you're a junior, right?" She asks, and Jonas nods. "Yeah, I'll be joining school come Monday." 

"Nice," Ren says. "You can come tonight, then." 

Jonas pauses, looks at each of the two in turn. 

"There's this party the juniors go to every year," Alex explains. "We take the ferry to Edward's Island and - go do stuff. Drink, sit around a bonfire, whatever we feel like."

"It should be some good fun," Ren says, "And I'll bring something to spice things up if it gets boring anyway." 

Jonas figures he might as well go. It's not like he's anything to do or anyone to spend time with, in this new town. 

"Sure," Jonas agrees. "Yeah, I'll come."

Alex smiles, brightly. Jonas gets this momentary  _feeling_ before it's abruptly gone; like it was never there in the first place.

* * *

It's a couple hours later and Jonas has been picked up from his house by Alex and Ren. His dad seems happy enough that he's found some people to hang with that he doesn't even ask where they're going. 

"Your dad seems pretty chill," Alex says, and Jonas - shrugs. 

_Not really._

"I guess," Is what he says, and Alex - she looks at him thoughtfully, considering - like she knows something or thinks she knows something, and Jonas - 

Jonas isn't sure what he's waiting for her to say. 

In the end, Alex says nothing.

"Well, get in the car then, we've got a Ferry to catch. And a sister to wait for." Ren says, and Jonas hops on into the car, and they drive off towards the docks. 

* * *

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Were you expecting Jonas perspective? Yes? No? I hope not. That was the whole point of the summary; to slightly mislead. Lol. 
> 
> Anyway, next chap will be arrival and campfire. Probably. 
> 
> And fyi, I'm skipping the section from the break the loop ending because nothing changes from how it was in the original stuff. Kay? Cool.

**Author's Note:**

> Needed to post this before it died a draft's death. Next chapters (when I get around to them) I'll be doing the night as it was for everyone except Alex for some context, then we'll move onto the days following the breaking of the loop.


End file.
